Who Are the Faculty?

All three faculty designing and teaching the course are in the Geology and Environmental Science department, although we reflect the strong interdisciplinary nature of people in the earth sciences. We have as our common language exploration of the origin, evolution, and history of the earth as a system. Beyond that our backgrounds are as diverse as the traditional sciences.

Lynn Fichter, a nearly 30 years JMU faculty member, is a paleontologist/ evolutionary biologist by training, with eclectic interests in subjects as diverse as the chemical/physical evolution of the earth, and the evolution of the brain and intelligence. He was also one of five faculty responsible for creation of the now defunct Freshman Seminar, a great books course, reflecting a strong interest in the liberal arts and interdisciplinary studies. Part of his interest in evolutionary systems stem from a desire to find the connection among and universal attributes that are common to all forms of human knowledge.

Steve Baedke is a hydro-geochemist specializing in data collection techniques in heterogenous systems, groundwater flow modeling, and geochemical modeling of natural systems. His interest in evolutionary systems rests in trying to understand the processes controlling the evolution of natural (i.e. real) systems. His ability to mathematically describe and/or study natural systems have resulted in a number of computer programs that will be used and demonstrated in this course.

Will Frangos William Frangos completed his secondary education at Collège du Léman in Versoix, Genève, Switzerland and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences at MIT in 1967. He investigated the fluid permeability of Westerly granite under high confining pressure as a senior research project. Subsequently, Frangos was employed by Kennecott Exploration Services in Salt Lake City as an exploration and research geophysicist for seven years, working in the area of porphyry copper exploration, utilizing primarily electrical and magnetic methods. After working for several other companies and research organizations, he founded Auriga Incorporated and Aquila Instruments Inc. in 1981, companies devoted to petroleum exploration by electrical geophysical means. Between 1986 and 1994, he was on the faculty of Salt Lake Community College, teaching mathematics, programming, and robotics. In 1992, Frangos was awarded a Master of Science degree by the University of Utah; his research involved development of a means of detecting leaks in lined waste ponds, based on work done while on sabbatical leave in Czechoslovakia. Returning to geophysics, Frangos earned a Ph. D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 2000, working in high frequency electromagnetic methods for environmental and engineering applications. Presently, he serves as an assistant professor of geophysics at James Madison University.